Newsman, watchdog lived life of journalistic adventure

6:47 AM,
Feb. 21, 2014

In this undated photo, Frank Farmer shows his story, 'The Vanishing Cowboy,' published in May 1956 in Collier's magazine. Farmer, a former News-Leader reporter, retired in 1976. He died Monday at age 89.

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Frank Farmer, who died Monday on the same family farm in Willard where he was born 89 years ago, called his life as a newspaper reporter an ongoing "adventure."

Farmer started at what is now the News-Leader as a cub reporter in 1957. He retired 29 years later and went on to serve on the first board of trustees of the newly created Ozarks Technical Community College. He was on the board from 1990 to 2007 and was a trustee emeritus.

When Farmer left the paper, he wrote a farewell column in October 1986 in which he looked back on his life as a reporter: ...